Competing for Status: Dynamics of Scientific Disciplines in the European Transnational Field

Research Council (ERC) affects the competition for status among disciplines and what this means for the social sciences in particular. Two notions are of analytical importance here: the idea of a European transnational field, and investigating disciplines by comparing research capacity and performance. The field structure was examined for a sample of 12 countries and 30 disciplines from all scientific domains. The study not only sheds light on the status of the social sciences and humanities, when compared to the physical, engineering and life sciences, it also allows insights into disciplinary comparisons within one domain. Results indicate that the relative capacity of the social sciences and humanities in Europe is far from being reflected in their ERC grant performance, retaining the significance of national funding in that domain. Nevertheless, ERC funding in the social sciences and humanities is proportionally larger for some countries (United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands) than for other countries within the European Research Area